


It Is Merely to Survive It, Together

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Get Out of the Fridge [10]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-22 21:03:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8300918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: The Vod'e answer to the recall in ways that show the effect of the chip was already beginning to degrade. And the Senate finally pulls it together.





	

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE HEED THE TAGS.

Bly knew something was wrong. He'd secured their location, fortified the city, and waited for orders.

Why weren't the orders coming?

Where was his General?

Flashes of blaster fire, whispers of 'order 66', sight of blue skin marred by …

He gasped aloud, bringing himself up in the narrow camp cot, his breathing gone ragged. Surely he… no, he couldn't…

His hand went by unconscious volition to the weapon on the hook of his belt, picked up when it had fallen on complete reflex. It was a habit, to pick up a dropped lightsaber, to give them back. The hooks had originated with the 212th and spread to being general uniform of the Vod'e.

The imagery came back to him, stronger, with a pain in his head, along the skull above and forward of his ear.

She'd turned to scan for threats at the first sound of the blasters rising.

She'd tried to protect them.

He could feel his finger squeezing on the trigger, to strike her down, to execute the woman that even then was trying to protect him and his men!

Bly pressed the heels of both hands into his eyes, as tremors started rippling through him in response to the memories rising, and his horror at what he'd done. He never really heard the visceral scream he let out, didn't think about anything beyond the betrayal as he grabbed the lightsaber.

One flick of his thumb, the hilt held at a certain angle, and there were no more thoughts at all.

+++

Rex couldn't quite contain his pain and anguish as the units slowly reported in. The 501st was … ragged, and set up on suicide watch for each other. They'd lost a few… but they were keeping each other alive, vowing to put right what they had, without choice, destroyed, as best they could.

The units coming in, though? That wasn't looking so good. Most of them were showing up with brevetted officers, and fumbling explanations of captains or commanders that had killed themselves or just deserted.

The 104th nor the 127th had responded to communications and were feared lost. The 327th had arrived under the command of a lieutenant that was shiney enough to stutter on reporting in to Rex.

Not a single one of the recovered men would speak to or look at Anakin, even if he talked to them first. The exclusion that had protected him from the troops above Coruscant also guarded him from harm, but as the Vod'e awakened to their actions, they were too aware of the fact he was a Jedi, that he lived, when their own were all walking far away now.

Anakin wanted to reach out, wanted to make it better… but the only man he could really reach was Rex. 

"The men will come around, Sir. They get that you were as out of control as they were," Rex said, gruff and tight with his own worries and pain. "It's just going to take time, because of what they saw and did."

"Rex… what about you? You don't have to hold it in, or hide it from me," Anakin told him. "They won't let me in to help, but dammit, Rex, you shouldn't be trying to protect me from what you're feeling."

"It's not you, General. It's me. I can't afford to let go, can't break down, because then I'm going to really focus on the fact I failed Fives. I let Tup die for nothing. So, please, Sir, don't push."

Anakin opened his mouth, then closed it and reconsidered. "Rex. Just promise me you'll lean on Ahsoka, when she gets back." He wasn't blind to the deepening rapport between his padawan (because there was no Order to come between them now) and his captain.

Rex's jaw tightened, then he opened his own mouth… and an announcement came over the base comm.

"Unit inbound. It's the 212th."

Anakin and Rex exchanged a look, and then they took off at a run for the landing platforms.

+++

Padmé waited quietly for the Senate to settle back from its outrage over the evidence presented. She caught Bail's eyes, saw he was in agreement, and they signaled Mon, who floated to the forefront of attention.

"I call for a division, based on what has been presented over the last three days, to indicate a willingness to repeal the wars passed during the leadership of Sheev Palpatine."

The Senator of Naboo saw as reason finally prevailed, and the majority of the Senate lit up with their approval. Slowly, those who had resisted it, flicked off their negative lights, rather than be tarred with the foulness of supporting a corrupt government. It had taken too many weeks, but they could finally begin to build a proper government, moving away from the draconian laws that had become the rule, rather than the exception, over the course of the war.

Rooting out the corruption, though… Padmé had made a list of all of the ones obstructing the investigations and motions. Some might just be misguided, but Naboo intelligence was about to have a driving mission to investigate all of them, in cooperation with her allies' Security Forces.

+++

There had been far too much time alone as far as Ahsoka was concerned. She knew it was for a very good reason, but she had gone through every event that had led to the death of the Jedi Order, the betrayal of the Vod'e by the Sith, and come out of it with a growing feeling that she had made a mistake by walking away.

If she had stayed, she would have seen something, she was convinced.

~No future can be absolute.~

The words echoed in her soul, holding a stronger truth in them than the words promising her destruction, if she stayed at Anakin's side. She hadn't told even Rex about those moments, the ones where she knew things outside of her direct experience. She thought maybe she might talk about it with Obi-Wan eventually, because she didn't think Anakin was ready to deal with her falling deeper into the Force and its weirdness.

As if that thought was all the trigger it needed, Ahsoka's fingers flew over the nav console, adjusting her thrust and heading. She swept her eyes forward, knowing something was there, something that didn't belong… but that held someone of hers.

"Hold on, Kix; I'm coming for you."


End file.
